The NZ government has taken the unusual step of legalising a swag of synthetic drugs. This is despite the lack of evidence supporting their safe use. I would suggest that there is a failure in government to recognise that:
1. Government approval is tantamount to government endorsement of drug-taking
2. Government approval implies that these drugs are safe when the evidence suggests otherwise
The problem is the government's anti-intellectual framework for regulating drugs. These policies fail by:
1. Placing a prohibition upon 'legislated drugs', as opposed to making all drugs illegal until the required testing has been performed.
2. Failing to develop an intellectual or ethical framework to regulate drugs
3. Failing to make broader ethical value judgements which would make people less vulnerable to drugs.
The NZ government is going to look like an absolute hypocrite when it 're-regulates' these drugs in coming months. One wonders if they retain this idea that youths take drugs to rebel against their adult parents and other authorities like the police. This is 'so 60s thinking'.
You want to keep people off drugs; change the way you govern the people. Our democratic tradition is causing depression, anxiety and other psychological illnesses. There is no system of government as discordant with reality than the current framework of democracy. i.e. The notion that we have rights is a blatant departure from reality.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
